Description
Rolling Stone once called Kerry Simon, the soulful, long-haired chef of this perpetually overcrowded restaurant in the Sofitel, the Rock ’n’ Roll Chef, a title he bears with the pride that other chefs tend to reserve for their James Beard Awards. And he has conquered the competition on Iron Chef. But the emblematic dish at Simon L.A. so far, the one on the lips of the people whose names are inscribed in indelible ink on all the best clipboards in town, is the mammoth concoction Simon calls the Junk Food Sampler: a $25 mass of cotton candy, Sno Balls and Rice Krispies marshmallow treats so insiduous, so awe-inspiring, that it may as well have been designed by a consortium of work-deprived Beverly Hills dentists. It isn’t a dessert; it’s a diabetic coma on a plate. Simon L.A. is also a shrine to the reimagining of America’s vernacular cuisine: meatloaf and shrimp cocktail, caesar salad and onion rings, truffle-oil-enhanced macaroni and cheese, and hand-chopped steak tartare paired with horseradish-painted beefsteak tataki. Because man does not live by cotton candy alone.
